4am Forever
by nintendiehard
Summary: A Teen Titans FanFic inspired by the song 4am Forever by Lost Prophets.


Author's Comments: Ok so this story was one of those that just seemed to work itself out in my head without me really thinking on it much. About a year or so ago, I was working out in the gym and listening to my new CD Liberation Transmission by Lost Prophets. The song 4am Forever came on and I began to think about a cool little story to go along with it, and this story somehow evolved into a Teen Titans Fanfic. That's about it really, not much else to it. 

Now, while I recomend that you listen to the song (and really the whole album, it's pretty good), it isn't really necessary for you to enjoy the story. But fans of Lost Prophets, the Teen Titans, AND FanFiction (wow, that limits it quite a bit doesn't it?) will get a kick out of it.

In this one I've tried to keep with continuity as much as possible, so please let me know how it turned out, if it matches, or if I messed something up. Actually, let me know how everything turned out, I live off comments, they give me strength. So the more, and the longer, the bettet! Thanks.

-Author.  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
"Autopilot engaged," Robin stated as the T-ship finally achieved escape velocity, and the atmosphere began to fade away around them . He pulled his hand from the control panel and said, "I'm turning my headset to Emergency mode, contact me…only if there is one." Robin's normally authoritative tone had been replaced with a very somber, dull one. He couldn't help himself, he knew he should still be the leader, even after what happened, but the events of the last days had more effect on him than he could fathom. He looked out the window of his cockpit at the other four.  
Cyborg sat in his, quietly celebrating the various systems of the T-ship. Raven was barely visible with her cloak and hood on, her eyes must have been closed since nothing could be seen in the deep shadow cast by the hood. Beast Boy sat in his seat, the angry scowl presently on his face had been there for some time now. He glanced towards Robin's cockpit and his scowl deepened. Robin looked away understanding why. Lastly, Robin looked toward Starfire's cockpit. She sat, slumped in her seat, her head leaning back onto the headrest unnaturally, her eyes closed. At first glance it would appear as though she were in a deep sleep, however there was something strange about her. Her skin, which was usually a deep orange-yellow, had faded to a dull yellow, the color of Dijon mustard. Her skin had faded quickly after her death, much the same way that a human's would, but even faster. Robin couldn't stand to look at her any longer, and turned his head upward, looking at the distant, slowly passing stars. Without shifting his gaze, he reflexively lifted his left arm and looked at his wristwatch.  
4:00 am he read through the shattered glass of the watch face..  
He looked back at the control panel and noticed the clock, which said 7:23 pm.  
Robin's watch said 4:00 am, and would forever. Robin leaned his head back onto the headrest and once again replayed the events of the last day in his mind.

------

The T-car skidded to a halt in the parking lot of the beach. In an instant, the four of them were out and ready for action. Plasmus ceased his rampage on the shore and turned his attention toward the newly arrived Titans. Robin glared at Plasmus, smiled, and said, "How many times do we have to go through this," in an authoritative, pithy fashion. Then with a token, "Titans, GO!" Robin and the others sprang into action.  
Robin was first. As planned he slung a salvo of exploding disks at the gelatinous monster. They had little effect but still created a great deal of smoke, temporarily blinding him. Afterwards, he jumped high into the air while Cyborg, who was charging behind him, fired a sonic blast at Plasmus. This took a great deal of matter off of Plasmus' head, and it flew backward, still connected to his body by a thinning tendril of goo. Starfire swooped in from above to deliver a crushing blow to remove the rest of his head. Instead though, Plasmus' head snapped back into her face, just as she was about to punch.  
She flew back with the blow, small amounts of Plasmas' "body" sticking to her. Robin, watched as she flew to the sand, creating a thin trench as she skidded down the beach to a halt. Robin reasoned that she was fine, she had gone through much harder things than sand after all. He returned his attention to the once again "whole" Plasmus. Plan A didn't work, and so it was time to go to B, he always had a plan for any eventuality. Robin flung a shock disk at the abomination, initiating plan B. The disk stuck in the goopy body and activated, sending a couple thousand volts through his body. The jolt obviously had an impact as the beast screamed and tensed up. As the charge began to wear down, Robin saw their chance, "Raven, NOW!"  
A black portal appeared in the sand near the beast and Raven slowly rose up from within, her eyes white and hands already raised above her head to better wield her powers. "Azerath Metrion Zynthos," she chanted, and a large black aura appeared around the weakened Plasmus. Raven began the difficult process of separating Plasmus' human form from the mixture of toxins that surrounded it. Robin watched as the process began to work. Once he was satisfied that the fight was finished, he looked back at Starfire, his worry about her growing since he hadn't seen her return to battle,  
When he behind him, the two white slits that covered his eyes widened to near circles. Down the beach, at the end of the trench that her body had made, Starfire sat, supported by a mound of sand that was kicked up with her impact, grasping her midsection. Her waist had ballooned outward significantly and seemed to be causing her great pain. Robin sprinted to her side yelling her name in fear. Her clenched eyes opened to a squint upon hearing Robin's worried yell. Never taking his eyes off of her, Robin stumbled to a halt near her. His breath more labored than the short sprint should have made it. A tear seeped out of one of Starfire's eyes, she was in agony. Robin looked at her body, up and down not knowing what to do, what was wrong? He began to lightly feel up and down her body, asking what was wrong frantically. He received no answer, this worried him further, if she was in so much pain, why was she silent?.  
Robin looked at Starfire's face again, and was horrified at what he saw. She seemed to be trying to say something, her mouth was open, but the inside of her mouth was filled with a maroon goop that writhed and squirmed around within. A small part of Plasmus had somehow gotten inside Starfire…and was HURTING her! Robin looked back toward Raven and her work and then back to Starfire. For once in his life, he was scared. Scared of more things than he could comprehend at the time. He looked back down at his hands, which rested on her inflated abdomen. It too writhed, almost as though she were with child and it was kicking, though much too violently. The sight and feeling nearly made Robin vomit. He steeled his nerves, and got up quickly, not knowing what he was going to do, but knowing that something needed to be done regardless of that.  
Turning around, he sprinted back toward Plasmus, drawing a birdarang from his belt. Raven was still working on the separation when Robin jumped at the floating mass and clung to it. He deviated from his normal grip on the weapon, and then began driving one of the blades into the monster, stabbing and stabbing again. Raven released her hold on Plasmus upon hearing the frantic grunting and wet stabbing sounds. Cyborg approached quickly, yelling, "'The heck you doing!?" The sounds continued until the newly freed Plasmus shrieked in pain, Robin had evidently hit the human form within the blob. He held the blade in place for a short time, a fevered, enraged look on his face, then abruptly twisted the birdarang and the screaming died down, as the monster fell over.  
As the beast fell, Robin jumped off, and sprinted back toward Starfire. Plasmus hit the sand, his human form immediately separating from the goop, pooling up around him, joined by a growing amount of blood. Raven descended to the limp body, and Cyborg ran toward him too but watching Robin as he ran away. Robin was approaching Starfire when he heard her retching. As he got close, he dropped to his knees, and crawled to her side to comfort her as she continued to vomit. There was so much, he thought, and all of it had forced it's way inside her, Robin felt violated on her behalf. He himself was on the verge of nausea, but he choked it down, and set a hand on Starfire's shoulder attempting to ease her suffering. As he did this though, she collapsed, face first into the puddle of sick, and there lay motionless.  
Robin panicked. He let out a yell and immediately picked her up from the, now wet, sand cradling her in his arms. As he ran back to the others, he thought about how light she felt in his arms. He liked the feeling, but he quickly banished the thoughts and focused on the task at hand. She needed to get back to the tower, to the med lab for help. He slowed to a jog as he approached Cyborg and Raven, who were looking at Plasmus' bleeding body, confused, and obviously concerned.  
They both looked up at him as he stopped, and with a shaky voice Robin said, "H-h-help!?" Raven didn't move, just continued staring, but Cyborg looked over his shoulder, back at Plasmus, and then Robin once more.  
He sighed, and then looked back at Raven. "Raven, take Star back to the tower, CAREFULLY. Get her set up as best ya can, and get Beast Boy to wake his lazy ass up and help you. Me an Robin are gonna to take Plasmus in and…," he glanced at Robin, a strange expression on his face," and…I'll take over with her when I get back. Til then, you and BB should be able to handle it." Raven looked…almost sad, but she nodded and enveloped herself and Starfire in the familiar black aura. Soon the two of them were gone, Robin stared off into the distance, looking towards the tower on the horizon. Without Robin knowing he had ever left, Cyborg returned from the T-car with the med-kit and a collapsible stretcher. "Robin," he barked, waking him up from his daze, "put pressure on this wound…NOW!" Robin complied, not used to taking orders, but in his state, he couldn't really do anything else.  
After Cyborg had Plasmus bandaged up, they both carefully set him on the stretcher and carried him off to the T-car. The rear seats folded for just this reason, and they slid Plasmus into the car, he wasn't breathing. Robin wasn't sure if he was unconscious or not. When they had secured Plasmus, and then themselves, they sped off to the nearest hospital. Leaving behind a ruined beach covered in the toxic substance the Plasmus surrounded himself with, blood, vomit, and Robin's bloodstained birdarang, stuck in the sand near where Plasmus fell. 

------

Robin sat in the passenger seat of the T-car, staring out the windshield. He felt strange. He wasn't sure what had just happened. It was like the kind of dream that tends to fade away shortly after you wake up screaming. He waited for Cyborg, feeling strange, and fidgety. He was concerned for himself, and what was happening, but mostly he was concerned for Starfire. That was the one part of the "dream" that he couldn't forget. The look on her face, the sight of her abdomen stretching and shifting, the wet, slickness of the small part of Plasmus. It made him feel an entire array of emotions, sadness, sickness, fury. He continued to wait, tapping his fingers one the passenger side door, anxious to return to the tower, to Starfire. It was mid-afternoon and the city was still busy and noisy, but it seemed too quiet to Robin. He would have given the mask off his face to have the stereo on. But of course that was impossible, none of the systems could be used without Cyborg's presence in the car, an idea he had after the theft and destruction of the first T-car.  
The driver's side door opened, and Cyborg began to enter the vehicle. Robin didn't remember seeing Cyborg approach. Without looking at Robin, Cy got in and shut the door. Using one of his fingers, Cyborg activated the systems and then slowly pulled onto the road. It wasn't until they had reached the first intersection that Cyborg finally said something. "What happened?"  
Robin was silent, he was having a very difficult time piecing it all together. He thought he should say something so he simply began, "I-" but was cut off.  
"Man, you always have a plan," Cyborg interrupted. "A plan B, plan C. You never let things get outta control." There was a long silence, then "I just don't get it. That wasn't…it wasn't you."  
Robin began only now to wonder. "Is he…?" he asked, intending to say more but unable to.  
Cyborg closed his eyes for a bit as they stopped at another red light. He sighed, opened his eyes again and said, "The doctors are going to try, but he's lost a lot of blood. It doesn't look good, they said." Robin looked down at his hands, sitting in his lap. The full weight of what he had done was just now hitting him. He could have very well just killed someone. He was supposed to be a "good guy." "So what the hell happened back there?"  
Robin felt as though he were a child being scolded. It reminded him of another time, but those thoughts left his mind quickly, replaced by more random thoughts. It seemed that he couldn't even control his thoughts, they bounced around from one subject to another He didn't know what to say, or if anything he could say would make anything any better. He decided that it wouldn't, and that he should just say it as best he could. "You saw Star get hit right?"  
"Yeah, but it didn't look too bad… not for her at least. I guess it was. But that's not what I want to know."  
Robin knew that that wasn't what he wanted to know about, that much he could find out when they got back to the tower and he examined her. "When I saw her…I saw…Plasmus had… was inside her and..." Robin was still looking down, almost as though the simple act could make him remember things more clearly. "She was in pain and I…I…I don't remember."  
Cyborg sighed. "Something happened alright. But you're the last person I'd expect this from." He paused. "You okay?" Cyborg must've glanced Robin's way. Robin looked up at Cyborg. His face was very somber as he returned his gaze to the road, and Robin had a hard time thinking about how he could look like that after what had happened to Starfire. Then something hit him. Cyborg wasn't worried about Starfire, he was worried about Plasmus!  
A small fire lit inside of Robin's chest. His eyes narrowed, "Are you even the least bit concerned about Starfire?" he hissed.  
"Man, you know I care, but what you-"  
"Then why are you taking so long to get back to the tower!?" Robin responded, only now noticing how normal Cyborg had been driving.  
"Hey, calm down okay? Raven can take care of things for a little bit, and we don't need to hurt anyone else." Immediately after saying that, Cyborg's face changed to a surprised, and worried look. Cyborg was blaming him for what had happened to Plasmus! He no longer trusted him, he thought that Robin was unstable. Instead of enraging Robin like he thought it would, it scared him. He relaxed back into his previous state, looking at his lap once more.  
"Y-yeah. You're right." His voice held a defeated quality, unusual for him.  
"Huh?, You aren't-"  
"Just… just drive Cyborg," Robin said somberly. "Carefully." Cyborg returned his attention to the road. Although Robin wasn't looking outside anymore, he could feel the T-car accelerate slightly. His own attention returned to Starfire. 


End file.
